By John T. Hill
Members of the General Assembly will have more than one opportunity to promote freedom this session. Earlier in the week Bearing Drift posted an article about HB 258, a bill strengthening the free speech rights of college students on public campuses. On a completely different topic, Rob Bell has also offered a freedom friendly bill that is currently in the agriculture sub-committee: HB 135, known informally as “The Food Freedom Act”.
HB 135’s summary reads:
“Home-produced or farm-produced products. Allows the sale of food products made from any fruit, grain, herbs, honey, meat, milk, mushrooms, nuts, poultry, seafood, or vegetables by a farm operation employing 10 or fewer people or by a private home, so long as (i) the sale is made directly to consumers and (ii) the product is labeled with the producer’s name and address, the product’s ingredients, and a disclosure statement indicating the product is not subject to Virginia’s food safety laws or regulations.”
Click here to read the full bill patroned by Delegates Bell and Ramadan.
Chief patron of the bill, Delegate Bell, says that HB 135 is offered to make it easier for farmers to get their products to consumers. He commented in an email, “It simply says that if it is direct farmer to customer sales, and if it is clear from the labeling that the product is not inspected, then the product can be sold”
Matthew French, owner of the French Family Farm in Bland County, Virginia, says, “The way the law stands it hurts small family farms…it is highly restrictive, complicated and costly to comply with.”
French, a passionate advocate for this bill, provided through email a variety of examples about the petty restrictions that currently affect people like him. One example French described was about selling something as simple as pickles. Apparently, if someone wanted to sell pickles, a pricey 2 day class is required. “That can be cost prohibitive unless you plan on selling several hundred pint of pickles”, he said.
A basic college economics class usually explains that the more government restrictions there are, the worse it is for an economy. French sees the status quo as oppressive to the poorer family farms. He said that by making it more difficult for the poor to provide for themselves the government has made them dependent on the system. French said through email, “The regulations and fees protect the rich from the competition of the poor (I’m not anti-wealth), by making it impossible for the poor to enter the market place.”
This bill only opens up more options for consumers, while allowing for more production in the marketplace. If consumers are worried about purchasing something that isn’t USDA approved, then the good news is that they don’t have to buy it. HB 135 is a win-win situation for buyers and sellers alike.
Allowing people to make their own decisions, personal responsibility, that’s the direction we need to head as a society in more than one way. Freedom should be a bi-partisan concept. Allowing conditions for family owned farms to survive should be a bi-partisan idea. HB 135 will hopefully receive bi-partisan support. Only time will tell if the General Assembly and Governor McAuliffe care enough to come together for the sake of providing more options to consumers and helping local farms stay afloat.
John T. Hill is the host of Take it to the Hill, a political talk show on WGMU. He writes regularly at JTHmishmash.com, which is his personal blog. Find John on Twitter: @JTHmishmash.
